Envelopes: Pratt Manhattan Gallery

A building envelop is to a structure as our skin is to our bodies. But whereas our protective outer layers are responsive to the environment (both inside and outside ourselves), the walls that wrap around a building often fail to adapt to their changing surroundings. In Envelopes, an exhibit that opened at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in March and closes May 5, guest curator Christopher Hight invited designers from around the world to create their visions of sustainable building surfaces that take on the sensory and responsive qualities of human skin.